Silicon Valley can be Having An Existential Crisis Over “Time Well Spent.” however So Are We.

Across the tech industry, a reckoning can be afoot. Faced with the consequences (harassment, misinformation, radicalization, polarization) wrought by the unprecedented scale of its platforms, Big Tech can be — at least publicly — looking inward. Facebook can be optimizing its platform to encourage something the idea’s calling “time well spent,” while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced two weeks ago the company would certainly attempt “to help increase the collective health, openness, as well as also civility of public conversation.” as well as also, facing a barrage of reports detailing how its algorithms have surfaced as well as also promoted divisive, disturbing, as well as also conspiratorial videos, YouTube has announced adjustments to improve its news experience. Taken together, these announcements make for something significant: a broad acknowledgment of which something needs to change.

however the idea’s not just the companies. A similar reckoning can be taking place for those of us who live on these platforms, too. within the last two weeks alone, the idea’s taken the form of quite a few familiar stunts of which involve “unplugging” via or altering the way of which we interact with the internet. Vice writer Eve Peyser spent a week within the woods filing analog columns about life away via computers; writers at Slate as well as also the Verge installed a Twitter Demetricator, which strips all of the likes, retweets, as well as also follower numbers via the social network, as well as also wrote about living on the internet outside of “the rules of the platform’s never-ending popularity contest.” Alexis Madrigal at the Atlantic conducted a similar experiment where he got rid of retweets in his feed as well as also came to the conclusion of which they’re awful. as well as also last week, the unplugging phenomenon twice graced the pages of the fresh York Times: within the form of a profile of an Ohio man who has excised via his life all political news, as well as also a column via Farhad Manjoo, who claimed he got his news only via print newspapers For just two months as well as also was happier as well as also healthier for the idea.

The impulse to unplug can be nothing fresh — so strong can be our obsession with going off the grid of which we have a national day dedicated to the pursuit (the idea was last week, did you notice?). The privileged, stressed-out masses have paid Great money for years at This particular point to abscond to the woods for various digital detox camps. In journalism, unplugging stunts are a frequent occurrence (full disclosure: I’ve taken sabbaticals via Twitter, email, cash, as well as also all phone apps within the name of a Great tech stunt). The rationalization usually follows the same pattern: in order to understand the importance of something of which takes up a great deal of space in your life, the idea’s helpful to remove the idea as well as also reflect.

This particular can be likely the thinking behind the rash of recent tech reset pieces — only This particular time around, there’s a particular aggressiveness to the stunts. Madrigal’s “Retweets Are Trash” headline pulls no punches; Peyser compares the internet she’s escaping to a utopian experiment gone wrong via a sci-fi novel, where “women are routinely sexually assaulted; people are beaten as well as also sometimes murdered; as well as also most curiously of all, the residents lean into the whole thing.” Unlike unplugging efforts via previous years, which felt like fun, curious social experiments, This particular batch has an urgency as well as also even a hint of desperation to the idea — less exploratory mission to the moon as well as also more last-ditch attempt to terraform Mars before the oceans rise.

While fundamentally different, all six of these recent pieces agree on one thing: Something can be wrong online. Fake news spreads faster as well as also farther than the truth. Our recommendation algorithms are efficient, ruthless radicalization engines. This particular Monday, on the 29th anniversary of the creation of the planet Wide Web, its creator, Tim Berners Lee, declared of which “what was once a rich selection of blogs as well as also websites has been compressed under the powerful weight of a few dominant platforms.” The current ecosystem can be maddening, all-consuming, as well as also unsustainable of which necessitates some kind of distance. While the big tech companies try to put their houses in order, the rest of us are left to grapple with exactly where we fit into the toxic internet narrative. We’ve spent the last decade surrendering ourselves to exciting, dizzying, addictive, as well as also — most importantly — free services of which wound their way into as well as also transformed every element of our lives. at This particular point, thanks to a toxic political climate, a contentious election, as well as also the specter of foreign interference, all via the platforms, we’re finally coming to as well as also starting to ask questions. How much of This particular can be the internet’s fault? How much of the idea can be ours?

This particular question can be what the best unplugging pieces desire to interrogate. Madrigal’s deep dive into turning off retweets as well as also the pieces on the Demetricator are, ultimately, attempts at a diagnosis. can be Twitter fundamentally bad? Or can be the idea just the retweets? can be the idea who I follow or can be the idea…me? Am I better without the idea? With some, however not all, of the idea?

The answer isn’t simple. Turning off retweets as well as also metrics can change our relationship having a piece of technology for the better, however the idea’s not a solution of which works at scale. Strip out the metrics via Twitter for every user as well as also the service can be…not Twitter. The incentives are different as well as also the behavior will change (if the idea’s not abandoned). Similarly untenable can be abstaining altogether. As the Verge’s Paul Miller found when he took a yearlong hiatus via the internet during 2012 as well as also 2013, the disconnect comes at a cost. “The real Paul as well as also the real world are already inextricably linked to the internet,” he wrote. “Not to say of which my life wasn’t different without the internet, just of which the idea wasn’t real life.”

Our collective struggle to get a handle on what the internet has wrought can be not unlike discussions happening at This particular point in open-plan offices across Silicon Valley. Something’s wrong, as well as also Big Tech has (slowly) begun to admit some fault. however like the rest of us, these companies lack the perspective to understand precisely where they fit in all of This particular. They’re looking for quick fixes. Focusing on the vague metric of “time well spent” can be not a solution — the idea’s a way to feel better as well as also move forward within the short term without addressing the real, systemic issues below the problem.

For individuals, unplugging can be a similarly straightforward — while exactly easy — way to make ourselves feel better about our relationship to all This particular technology. the idea gives us a little measure of control so we don’t even have to consider the unthinkable option: abandoning the idea altogether. as well as also the idea’s for these reasons of which most unplugging stunts reach the inevitable conclusion of which, while the system may be broken, the idea’s also the one we live in. The conflict, toxicity, delight, as well as also weirdness of being relentlessly connected can be a human problem — not caused, however rapidly accelerated by, the internet.

within the end, no amount of Big Tech mission statement fiddling can be likely to fix what’s actually broken. as well as also no matter how much we create artificial rules to govern our internet consumption, we’re likely still going to feel like we’re being driven by, rather than driving, the glut of information. This particular can be where we live at This particular point, even if little of the idea definitely feels like time well spent.

Charlie Warzel can be a senior writer for BuzzFeed News as well as also can be based in fresh York. Warzel reports on as well as also writes about the intersection of tech as well as also culture.